First off if you haven’t heard of Elf on the Shelf, where the heck have you been? The Elf on a Shelf is a book and miniature elf packaged together as a “fun” holiday tradition. Millions of people buy this book and read the story of how Santa’s elves are stationed at kid’s houses around the world watching to see if they are naughty or nice. Each night, these elves return to the North Pole to report to Santa. The other interesting part of the story is that the elf is not allowed to be touched, or else he will lose his magic. Each child then names their elf and is told for the next 2 days (til Christmas) the elf will be watching over them. So far, this sounds a little creepy.

Where the fun comes in is when the elf returns every morning in a different part of the house and the children have to find him. Now I believe the intention was just to move the little elf around on the mantelpiece, to the kitchen, onto a bookcase, etc for the 25 days of Christmas. But as the years have rolled on people have become a little more imaginative as they move their elf around the house and place him into compromising positions. These same people have chronicled their elves movements on their blogs.

This year was the first time I heard about the Elf on the Shelf and I have to say, the main reason I did NOT do it this year is not because it has nothing to do with the real meaning of Christmas, or because it tries to scare children into being nice (if you’re not nice, the elf will report back), or because the elf is slightly creepy. The main reason I did not want to do it this year is because, let’s face it I really don’t have the time or headspace to come up with creative places to move the elf not once, but multiple times until Christmas.

This is perhaps the funniest thing I have read about The Elf on the Shelf and how overboard some people are going with moving their elf around the house. Remember, as the mama of the house the job will likely be yours to move the elf around each night after the kiddies go to bed. Wouldn’t you rather be relaxing with your feet up rather than creating elaborate elf scenarios for the kids to find the next day? Apparently millions of parents would not. Did you read the link at the beginning of this paragraph? You should. It is the groanings of a mother who practices the tradition a little begrudgingly. I promise you, it’s funny.